Tiếng Việt · Idiom Candidate

xem mặt mà bắt hình dong, con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: trông mặt mà bắt hình dong, con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon · nhìn mặt mà bắt hình dong, con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon

Meaning · English

One's appearance can be deceiving, judge by actual performance

Literally: look at the face to guess the shape of the pig, if the pig is fat then the liver is delicious

Where it’s used: Used Toàn quốc & hải ngoại · Vietnam-wide & diaspora

Examples

Anh ấy trông rất giỏi nhưng xem/trông/nhìn mặt mà bắt hình dong, con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngonHe looks very skilled but look at the face to guess the shape of the pig, if the pig is fat then the liver is delicious

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on Vietnamese Wikiquote “Thành ngữ Việt Nam” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Heart Pigs

Common questions

What does “xem mặt mà bắt hình dong, con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon” mean?

One's appearance can be deceiving, judge by actual performance Literally: look at the face to guess the shape of the pig, if the pig is fat then the liver is delicious

Is “xem mặt mà bắt hình dong, con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.